William Nordhaus:

The economics of climate change is straightforward. People do not pay for the current and future costs of their actions.

Freeman Dyson:

As a scientist I know that all opinions, including my own, may be wrong. I state my opinions firmly because I believe they are right, but I make no claim of infallibility. I beseech you, in the words of Oliver Cromwell, to think it possible you may be mistaken. One principle that we might all accept is that the future is uncertain.

Snow-dumping in East Antarctica would be a good way to stop sea levels from rising. A permanent high-pressure anticyclone over East Antarctica keeps the air over the continent dry and the snowfall meager. To dump snow onto East Antarctica, we must move the center of the anticyclone from the center to the edge of the continent. This could be done by deploying a giant array of tethered kites or balloons so as to block the westerly flow on one side only.

Carbon-eating phytoplankton and snow-dumping are fanciful projects. Like other engineers' dreams in the past, they will probably be superseded by better ideas and newer technologies long before they are needed. They are illustrations of the general principle that antidotes to even the worst-case consequences of climate change will be available if we allow economic growth to continue. The future of technology beyond fifty years from the present is totally unpredictable.

To reach reasonable solutions of the problems, all opinions must be heard and all participants must be treated with respect.

If you would like to revisit The Question of Global Warming:

Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion. Environmentalism, as a religion of hope and respect for nature, is here to stay. This is a religion that we can all share, whether or not we believe that global warming is harmful.

'The Question of Global Warming': An Exchange

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Cooliris, Inc. | Beyond the Browser

A gold star for this preview of The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins, due out next month, which appears in the Sunday NYT magazine.

Often it was the dogs that saved me.

Running at night — it was madness. I was courting death or at least a kidnapping. The capital was a free-for-all; it was in a state of nature. There was no law anymore, no courts, nothing — there was nothing at all. They kidnapped children now; they killed them and dumped them in the street. The kidnapping gangs bought and sold people; it was like its own terrible ecosystem. One of the kidnapping gangs could have driven up in a car and beat me and gagged me, and I could have screamed like a crazy person, but I doubt anyone would have done anything. Not even the guards. They weren’t bad people, the guards, but who in Baghdad was going to step in the middle of a kidnapping?

From the archive, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy:

What was that?
I didn't hear anything.
Listen.
I don't hear anything.
They listened. Then in the distance he heard a dog bark. He turned and looked toward the darkening town. It's a dog, he said.
A dog?
Yes.
Where did it come from?
I don't know.
We're not going to kill it, are we Papa?
No. We're not going to kill it.
He looked down at the boy. Shivering in his coats. He bent over and kissed him on his gritty brow. We won't hurt the dog, he said. I promise.

About the production of the film adaptation:

The producers chose Pennsylvania because it’s one of the many states that give tax breaks and rebates to film companies and, not incidentally, because it offered such a pleasing array of post-apocalyptic scenery: deserted coalfields, run-down parts of Pittsburgh, windswept dunes. Chris Kennedy, the production designer, even discovered a burned-down amusement park in Lake Conneaut and an eight-mile stretch of abandoned freeway, complete with tunnel, ideal for filming the scene where the father and son who are the story’s main characters are stalked by a cannibalistic gang traveling by truck.

From the recent archive:

Those that died of kuru were highly regarded as sources of food, because they had layers of fat which resembled pork. It was primarily the Fore women who took part in this ritual. Often they would feed morsels of brain to young children and elderly relatives. Among the tribe, it was, therefore, women, children and the elderly who most often became infected.

Also:

antrophagus: It’s only a few days until March 9

cator99: Still, I would have rather met you yesterday and felt your teeth

antrophagus: One can’t have everything. There’s still some time before you really feel my teeth

My Long War

Front page, above-the-fold, of today's Boston Globe:

Where agency sees attack, MIT students talk of constructive exploration

This article doesn't really break any news, particularly for those who were at DEFCON or who followed the recent threads. But they did make room for this explanation:

"I've always been interested in electronics," said Anderson, who grew up scouring alleyways for discarded machines. "Ever since I was a little kid, I would take things apart to see how they work."

These days, he proudly calls himself a hacker.

"If a lot of people think hacker, they think of someone who illegally breaks into systems," he said. "I don't at all think that's what hacker means. I think hacking is a culture of curiosity and exploration and learning and building and creating new things."

From the archive:

The Craftsman continues an argument begun in the 19th century, when writers such as John Ruskin and William Morris extolled the crafts remembered in our surnames (Smith, Cartwright, Thatcher, Mason, Fletcher) while lamenting the mind-numbing and soul-destroying labour of the industrial process which was replacing them. A long line of thinkers, from Hegel and Marx to Sennett’s teacher Hannah Arendt, have sympathised with the argument. But Sennett does not think that craftsmanship has vanished from our world. On the contrary: it has merely migrated to other regions of human enterprise, so that the delicate form of skilled cooperation that once produced a cathedral now produces the Linux software system. Linux, for Sennett, is the work of a community of craftsmen “who embody some of the elements first celebrated in the (Homeric) Hymn to Hephaestus”.

The spread of Enterprise Systems has resulted in a declining emphasis on creativity and ingenuity of workers, and the destruction of a sense of community in the workplace by the ceaseless reengineering of the way businesses operate. The concept of a career has become increasingly meaningless in a setting in which employees have neither skills of which they might be proud nor an audience of independently minded fellow workers that might recognize their value.

The evidence suggests that from an executive perspective, the most desirable employees may no longer necessarily be those with proven ability and judgment, but those who can be counted on to follow orders and be good "team players."

T hacking exposes a deeper clash

Today's the day for Byrne's new album.

Brian Eno and I recently finished our first collaboration in about 30 years. The name of the new record is Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. For the most part, Brian did the music and I wrote some tunes, words and sang. It's familiar but completely new as well. We're pretty excited.

The album is available exclusively from this Web site. You can stream all of the songs for free and purchase it in a variety of digital and physical formats, including a limited edition Deluxe Package designed by Stefan Sagmeister. All formats can be downloaded immediately and physical CDs will be shipped in the Fall.

David Byrne
Midtown

They'll be at the Chastain Park Amphitheater on September 20.

From the archive:

The symphony of Manhattan Island, composed and performed fortissimo daily by garbage trucks, car speakers, I-beam bolters, bus brakes, warped manhole covers, knocking radiators, people yelling from high windows and the blaring television that now greets you in the back of a taxi, is the kind of music people would pay good money to be able to silence, if only there were a switch.

The other day, in a paint-peeling hangar of a room at the foot of the island, David Byrne, the artist and musician, placed his finger on a switch that did exactly the opposite: it made such music on purpose.

David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Gape upon the greatness that once was presidential campaign slander ... something old and something new — but none of it was impromptu ...

Money and vision are inseparable. The enduring question is where the money would come from ... an exclusive enclave on the outskirts of Islamabad ... the mega-budget tent-pole movies ... looming above the ocean, like dusty mushrooms ...

Texas is going through a dry spell ... Effective government was never this region's strong suit.

The Chinese must not understand the cheesy side of capitalism yet, because someone has clearly missed a big chance to cash in.

He has become a middle-management cultural icon -- vulgar, puerile and needlessly gross, a feisty and jovial mood -- who has been exceedingly gracious with his valuable time. The hero, in his porn days, had "buttocks ripe like the plump half-melons for which Japanese businessmen will pay a small fortune." All of this was the result of neglect that was politely called deferred maintenance. Old-school journalists may bemoan the changes, but viewers do not necessarily suffer. My skin was as soft and clean as undisturbed yogurt.

Mr. Schmidt was impressed by Mr. Obama. "He listened more than he talked, which is always a good thing," Mr. Schmidt says. "He clearly sees himself as a clever synthesizer of other people's ideas. And I think that is an important skill in a president."

Or, in the blunter words of Gov. Phil Bredesen, Democrat of Tennessee: "Instead of giving big speeches at big stadiums, he needs to give ... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

What reflects the human-size soap opera that is the life of a real teenager are all the casually stinging asides, the surge and abrupt decline of social power, the unforgivable betrayals and gnawing insecurities that the kids experience.

There is rage. And most important, there are rules.

This is like a parking lot. But it is what it is.

"Students are desperate for hands-on experience," says Neil Gershenfeld.

"All I know is, there is water where it didn't used to be."

"This new reality," she added, "is a lot more pleasant."

She knew how to exploit a rich idea.

"I didn't think it was possible for her to do it, or anyone to do it, for an entire year."

We Americans demand too much from our athletes, particularly our girls.

"Only the real special ones can do this kind of thing."

They blame "imperfect" systems for monitoring such problems.

And then there are the culprits of a more conceptual kind.

Instead, we leap at the chance to deem someone — anyone — responsible.

Parents were alarmed. Blogs buzzed.

"You can't stop them and ask them what their names are."

"The consensus was that we should just let it peter out," he said.

School is school, you know. "Looters are looters," said Pyotr Taslagan.

It's not the problem, and it's not the answer.

The hulking timbers illustrate Gehry's obsession with "big wood" ... which probably says more about ... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

She compared herself to a "plump caterpillar" waiting to break free of its cocoon.

Jenny has had a hard life, even by elephant standards. Now, Jenny has become the focus of a boisterous debate about what to do with an aging elephant with a troubled mind.

Where they stopped, they were met by throngs of people who crowded at the windows, hoping to be given a plastic bag that included breads, sausage and canned goods.

"She worried about being shlumpy, and the word 'shlumpadinka' was thrown around a lot."

That could happen if passengers reach a personal tipping point.

Some, though appalled, emphasize that there is a danger in opting out as well.

The most poignant scene was the triple burial of a petite woman lying on her side, facing two young children.

So the converse is clearly not a good idea either.

Is the oil business the new whaling business? And, if so, is that a good sign or a troubling one?

What about women’s gymnastics?

The performances are incredible and fearless, but it isn’t the athleticism that draws me in.

It’s not that they tippy-toe around either.

Mothers living near highways are more likely to give birth to preterm or low-birth-weight babies, but contrary to previous studies it found the association only in wealthy neighborhoods.

But minor drama is the lifeblood of suburbs.

Can all these often contradictory reports be right? Yes.

Who is buying Zunes, and why?

There are even those who suggest humanity should collectively decide to turn away from some new technologies as inherently dangerous.

And those who are obsessed have a whole new range of technological tools to indulge their obsession.

“Design stupidly produces more things, and for years I’ve spoken about the importance of living with fewer things. But my position is a little ambiguous.”

Americans are as addicted to bandwidth as they are to oil. The first step is facing the problem.

Elvis Presley’s most treasured performance costume, a peacock jumpsuit, was sold to an unidentified bidder on gottahaveit.com for $300,000. The white costume is decorated with an embroidered blue-and-gold peacock emblazoned on the back, with blue peacock feathers trailing down both flared pants legs.

Yes! That’s what I was experiencing, too. Those garish colors, that craziness and freedom, that painfully stark clarity about what was important and what was not.

One mother says: “We shouldn’t blame the Americans for everything. There is something wrong with us too.”

The American video game ... [ Read More (0.7k in body) ]

Atlanta is just as hosed as Georgia.

The Web site of the president of Georgia, the small nation that is battling Russian forces over a breakaway enclave, was moved to a US hosting facility this weekend after allegedly being attacked by Russian hackers.

Georgian president's Web site moves to Atlanta